Source: Houston Chronicle Contact: Pubdate: Sat, 25 Oct 1997 Website: http://www.chron.com/ Students more aware than ever after Alcohol Awareness Week demo goes awry By LISA CORNWELL Associated Press AKRON, Ohio A college student who volunteered to take part in a demonstration on the dangers of getting a little tipsy overdid it and wound up in the hospital, fallingdown drunk. David Reynolds, a 24yearold civil engineering major at the University of Akron, had too much vodka Wednesday night as part of the "CopaBuzz" demonstration. He was released from the hospital Thursday. His parents took him home for the weekend, and the school wouldn't say where they lived. "It is obvious that some liberties were taken with the execution of the program," said David Stephen, university director of residence life and housing. No one was able to say how much Reynolds drank. Police didn't check his bloodalcohol level before he went to the hospital. The demonstration during the school's Alcohol Awareness Week was intended to show how even small amounts of alcohol can hamper motor skills. Reynolds and two other student volunteers were supposed to drink just enough to hit a .08 percent blood alcohol level, slightly below the .10 percent limit for driving in Ohio. In past years, one volunteer drank liquor, another beer and the third wine in front of an audience of students and university police chaperones. After the volunteers finished their drinks, they performed a sobriety test. This year, however, organizers decided to get the volunteers drinking two hours before the demonstration. By the time police arrived, Reynolds was slumped and having trouble walking. Reynolds had participated in the program last year without incident. Some of the school's 24,000 students said the whole idea of the program was silly. "It's pointless," said Dave Wehner, a sophomore who said he doesn't drink. "College students know what their limits are."